Martyn Jones

Carmarthen, Wales 1^st August 2017

I am a citizen of the European Union; I have always supported the European ideal; and I will never stop fighting Brexit until it has been consigned to the annals of history as a temporary aberration, a time when things could have gone very badly, but didn’t.

I think that I am right to support our continued membership of the European family. I also think that the Brexiteers, if they are really looking out for the interests of their fellow islanders, are absolutely wrong to push for Brexit. Or better said, I think that Brexit could be the nastiest, the most divisive and the most damaging decision in the history of the UK.

Apparently this makes me conceited.

This makes me conceited because I am denying the Brexiteers their democratic right. Their inalienable right to have the UK leave the European Union. Their divine right to cut off their nose to spite their face. Come what may.

Brexiteers tell me that I am anti-democratic (and worse) because I continue to actively and vociferously oppose this social, economic and political madness we call Brexit.

So I am both conceited and anti-democratic. What next?

The thing is, Brexit is not written in stone, and democracy means that we can ‘change our minds’. This is a very important point. Democracy allows us to make mistakes, but, by the same token, democracy also allows us to correct mistakes.

What’s more, MPs have a duty to do what is right for the country, regardless of the prevailing moods in the country. They are empowered and morally obliged to do the right thing.

Indeed, as the electorate we have a moral obligation to remove, at the ballot box, any politician who continually places party before country. Especially when it comes to significant challenges.

What we must also keep in mind is that a referendum is only a consultation, and this nonsense about it being legally and morally binding, no matter what the prevailing circumstances may be, or what changes may occur, is completely and utterly absurd.

We are not governed by status quo but by parliamentary democracy.

So, I’ll just say one thing to those who believe that I am conceited and anti-democratic to oppose Brexit.

It’s time to stop walking backwards into the future. It’s time to kick out the fantasies of the past and the prejudices of the present. It’s time to cast aside the debilitating baggage of the fantasy glory days that never were.

We should seize the day, play to our strengths and create a federal European Union fit for our future and for all of those yet to come.

It’s time we all grew up.

Many thanks for reading.

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